For over a century Lee Cooper has been crafting hard wearing, denim-led clothing. Their 100 year old roots lie firmly within work wear, and their trusted experience in creating tough reliable clothing continues to attract artisans and craftsmen the world over. These people are Makers. In the words of Arthur OʼShaughnessey, they are the music makers, the dreamers of dreams, the world-losers and world-forsakers, the movers and the shakers.
Inspired by this concept, the autumn and winter 2013 Makers campaign from East Londonʼs original denim brand Lee Cooper champions emerging creative talent, amplifying the values of modern British youth culture. This season, they are proud to introduce to you four such Makers from a writer, a set designer, a comic artist, and a photographer and sculptor. Each of these artists are home grown talent, representing the promising future of their specialist crafts.
Kevin Soar
Kevin Soar is a writer from Essex. Heavily inspired by his family, and famed London literary figures, Kevin moved to the East of the city at 18 to follow in their footsteps. His passion for London past spans across the slim cut smartness of 1960’s East London modernists and football terrace style, to the discovery of inspirational texts stocked in little-known bookshops. Kevin writes short stories and poetry in his notebook from a room in his East London house.
Penny Mills
The work of set designer and art director Penny Mills is influenced by the manually created special effects of horror films from the late 70s. Penny often revisits to old-school science experiments to source inventive, lo-tech ways to create explosions and chemical reactions. This fusion of influences results in creativity which has a somewhat macabre tone, yet packed with a playful, tongue in cheek punch.
Since 1908, Lee Coper has held strong as ʻthe peopleʼs brandʼ. Quintessentially British, the company was founded in Londonʼs East End by Morris Cooper and has since become a global pioneer of workwear and classic, authentic denim. Sold in over 100 countries worldwide and enjoying double digit growth year on year, Lee Cooper stays true to its heritage of Britishness, Work Culture and Music.
Joe Kessler
Joe is a comic artist and screen printer. His signature style is surreal and darkly imaginative. Fluid organic shapes are interspersed with complex multi-point perspective, with the narrative following a dream like quality. After having studied at Camberwell College of Art, Joe was invited back to tutor a specialism in comic book drawings. When creating his own cartoons and screen prints, he works out of this studio in Hackney.
Rachel Hunt
An MA graduate from Camberwell College of Arts, Rachel has honed her own distinctive specialism of art through blending her original photography with sculptural creations. Her work constantly challenges how a sculptural vehicle changes the perception of an image to give it a whole new narrative. Rachel shoots on a 35mm film using the very first Canon camera she ever owned. She draws upon her travels, events she has experienced, and real life scenarios as inspiration to create new artworks.
